Runaway
by One Singular Waffle
Summary: After Jace and Sebastian visit Clary in her house in CoLS, Clary chooses to run away in order to attempt to keep everyone she loves safe. She knows the clock is ticking, but she's going to try to keep running for as long as she can. But what happens when someone unexpected finds her? Oneshot


Clary never thought things would end up this way. She never thought that she would have to leave her entire life behind. But he would try to hunt her down, and wouldn't stop until he finally did, so there was only one solution - to leave.

There were, of course, a few rules for her journey:

Keep moving - never stay in the same place for more than a few months.

Never look back - it would cause more harm than good if she started to talk to people from her past.

Wear an anti-tracking rune at all times - he would find her if she didn't.

She, of course, left a single note that was meant for her mom, and Simon, and Luke, and whoever else was going to read it. She hoped that they wouldn't be too sad, and that they would understand.

She had to leave soon, Clary realized. She double checked to make sure that she had everything that she needed. Money? _Check_. Car? _Check. _Clothes? _Check._ Fake birth certificate and I.D? _Double check._

She was crying, because damn it, she really, really didn't want to leave. But she had to, if she wanted to keep them safe.

She put her stuff in the trunk, and dragged herself into the driver's seat. And then she cried harder. She was bawling by this point. But after a few minutes she composed herself enough to start driving away.

Clary had to remind herself that this was something that she was going to have to do a couple of times - alright more than a couple of times. It was more like a lot of times, which made her start to cry again. But even so, she kept driving, and driving, and driving for hours - but eventually she got tired, and had to stop at a hotel.

She paid in cash, because to her knowledge - made up of exclusively crime t.v. shows and movies - you could be tracked through credit card usage. So yeah, she wouldn't take that chance. Jace or her mom would try to find her, and then they would be in danger again. Though, there were probably more efficient ways to find people in the Shadow World, she assumed.

She reapplied a tracking rune and went to bed. It was around 1 in the afternoon. She had been driving for about 11 hours, and that was with several stamina and awareness runes.

Clary slept fitfully for 6 hours, but gave up after that. She then reapplied an anti-tracking rune, plus two stamina runes and three awareness runes, checked out of the motel, and was back on the road. She still had around two hours without stops and traffic until she reached Chicago, Illinois.

Stopping only to get food and go to the bathroom, she made it there in about three and a half hours. She went a little further into the city into a town called Hawthorn. That took her an additional thirty minutes to get there.

She drove around looking for apartments or townhouses for rent - hopefully fully furnished. She found one, and though it was a little run down, it was within her price range. She got a deal to rent one for six months, since that's the least amount of time that they would rent her the townhouse.

She paid in cash once again, and went out to get some groceries, and to sign herself up for high school.

_**Page Break**_

By some miracle the high school didn't require a parent's signature to sign up, so she was able to fill out the forms right in the main office. School had already started, so she was to start attending on Monday, since it was Friday.

She went back to her townhouse, and went straight to bed. She slept fitfully again, but this time she dreamed. She dreamed of Jace and the life they could have had together, and she woke up sweating and crying because she knew that her Jace would never return. He never could, and even if he could, he wouldn't, because he was with Sebastian now, and he didn't want to be her Jace anymore. And it hurt so fucking bad to know this, but at least she wasn't giving herself a false hope. So she cried herself back to sleep, and she slept dreamlessly this time.

When she woke up, she was hungry, but she realized that she had forgotten to get groceries the day before. So she went out to the local grocery store, and bought enough of those microwave meals to last her a week or so. Probably a little more than that. She didn't care anymore at that point. All she cared about was not being caught - by anyone. She refused to put everyone in danger any longer.

_Everyone has to grow up at some point, and I guess I'm just doing that now_. She thought to herself as she ate her microwave spaghetti and meatballs. _It's going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine._ Was her mantra. And even though she didn't believe it fully, it was enough to calm down her ever-growing anxiety enough to attempt to sleep some more.

_**Page Break**_

For Clary, it was the first day of school, and all she wanted to do was die. She was never good with being the center of attention, and her bright red hair didn't help. She was contemplating whether or not to dye her hair when a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes walked up. "No you shouldn't dye your hair. And, yes, I've seen that look a million times before."

"Kaelie?" Clary breathed, her voice hoarse for not speaking for days. When she saw her she almost collapsed into the the other girl's arms. Clary had never been more grateful to see anyone in her life.

"Let's go to the bathroom and I'll explain everything there. And, if I'm correct, which I always am, then you have some explaining to do as well."

"Yeah, I guess I do." Clary whispered, trying to dry the tears that seemed to keep coming no matter how much she tried to stop them.

So they walked together, Kaelie supporting Clary and whispering soothing things into her ear. _Something had to be wrong,_ Clary reasoned, _because Kaelie was never this nice to her._ Either way she was glad for the company, and even more than that she _needed_ the company. She hadn't talked to anyone for days, other than the landlady, and the person at the cash register when they asked her whether she preferred paper or plastic bags.

When they finally reached the bathroom, Kaelie handed Clary some paper towels to dry her face with.

"So I'm here since Magnus sent me because he was worried about you. Why are you here, honey?"

"I'm dangerous." Clary started to sob again. "If I stay there what if he tries to hurt Luke again? Or Mom, or someone because he's trying to get to me?"

"Honey, I'm not sure how to say this, but your mom contacted Jace _because_ you were gone."

"Good, then if they're working together, then Mom and Luke are safe."

"Honey, what if he finds you? Aren't you worried about _yourself_ at least a little bit?" Kaelie actually looks worried now, but Clary has managed to finally dry her tears - for real this time.

"No. But either way I'll be fine. I'll apply an anti tracking rune every time it wears off, I'll keep moving, and I've only paid with cash so far, and you can go back to Magnus and tell him I'm fine. I don't even know how he found me in the first place." Clary turned around and was about to walk out of the bathroom, but Kaelie grabbed her arm.

"First of all he probably tracked you when you forgot to apply an anti tracking rune when you were asleep. Second of all, I'm staying with you until we figure out what to do with you. I'll contact Magnus and tell him that you're fine, and not to tell the others where you are. Okay?"

"Okay," Clary said breathlessly, and hugged Kaelie once again. "You can room with me? I mean, I have the space - if you want to."

"Of course I want to. And besides, someone needs to make sure that you're taking care of yourself."

"Hey! I can take care of myself perfectly fine, thank you very much."

"Sure you can, Clary. Let's just get to class," She stated exasperatedly.

_**Page Break**_

It had been three months, and Clary had a new boyfriend. His name was Ryder, and he was on the football team. She had gotten on the cheer leading team, with Kaelie's help of course. Kaelie herself wasn't interested, but she said it would do Clary some good. Anyways, It was pretty stereotypical, especially since they met at a game.

Clary said yes when he asked her out, mostly because she knew that she had to move on. Jace wasn't coming back, and she needed to accept that. She actually did like Ryder, kind of like a boyfriend. But if she was being honest with herself, it was mostly like a friend.

But it didn't matter. She was the perfect girlfriend, and everyone knew it. Kaelie actually was encouraging her to be herself more, but Ryder liked her, at least the way she currently was, so she didn't do anything about it.

Kaelie also said that she should stay here a little longer than she planned - at least until the school year was over. She said that Clary needed at least _something_ stable in her life, and if this place was it, then they were going to stay there until they figured out what else was going to be a constant in her life.

If Clary was being honest, she really liked Kaelie. She wasn't as bad as she originally thought. She wasn't shallow or cruel at all. She was kind and compassionate, helped Clary start to pull herself back together again, was a good friend, and most importantly was focused on helping keep Clary's loved ones safe - at least the ones she could.

She would give Clary updates that she had gotten from Magnus every once in a while, and would tell her where Jace was too. Kaelie said that Magnus was trying to throw them off her trail, but it wouldn't last forever.

Clary knew that she was worried about why she was asking about Jace, but everytime she asked, she would just tell her that it was so she knew when she had to leave. Even though every time she said that, Kaelie said that she would handle that, and then gave her a suspicious look, because if Clary was being honest with herself, that's not why she was asking.

The truth was, she was missing Jace like crazy, and even though she couldn't be near him physically, if she could keep tabs on him, that was as close as she was going to get, so she was going to have to live with only getting that close.

_**Page Break**_

Kaelie was out getting groceries and Ryder had come over to watch a movie after practice, and Clary was just showing him out, when she _swore_ she saw a flash of gold. She also knew that she was still missing Jace like crazy, so she passed it off as just seeing things.

She said goodbye to Ryder, after walking him out to the front porch, and then went back inside.

She sat down at the kitchen table, debating whether to make herself a cup of coffee or not, while staring out the window. That's when she actually saw him. _Jace_. He was smirking and waving mockingly at her, but she knew that he was angry fuming actually. Probably because it looked like they had just had sex in the shower - which they didn't. Clary was wearing one of Ryder's hoodies and some leggings, and they had each _separately_ taken a shower, because they were both super sweaty from practice.

She ran to the bathroom, and locked herself inside, and called Kaelie. "Honey, what's going-"

"He's _here_ Kaels." She whimpered, scared half to death. She could hear him at the front door, knocking and telling her that if she didn't open the door for him, then he would open it for himself.

"Okay, where are you?" She seems panicked, which is probably the most appropriate response at this point.

"In the bathroom," Clary whispered.

"Where's he at?"

"On the front porch, about to try to break open the door."

"Okay, here's what you're going to do, honey. As soon as he gets inside, and is closer to you, and farther away from the door, you jump out of the window, okay? And then when you're far enough away, you call me, and I'll get Magnus to portal you out of there when you can tell me where you are."

"Okay. I don't know how he found us Kaels, we were so careful."

"Clary, honey, I agree with you, but I can hear him breaking through the door, so I need to hang up, okay?"

"Okay," She breathed, and just like that, she was alone again. Well, mostly alone, because Jace had managed to break through the door, and was getting closer to the window.

The bathroom and bedroom was connected, so she ran to the bedroom, and hopped out that window, since it was the bigger one of the two.

She ran to the school, since it was within walking distance, and found the closest room that had no windows, which happened to be the janitor's closet by the gym, and then she locked herself in there, because she was running out of options at that point and had nowhere else to run to.

**In the Janitor's closet at the school. The one by the gym. Don't know how much longer until he finds me again.**

She finished the text and sent it to Kaelie, who immediately had Magnus open her a portal. However, Jace was right behind her, and grabbed her foot and pulled her out when she tried to jump in.

"What. The. Fuck?" He growled at her, as he hauled her up.

"Fuck off," Clary shoved him and then turned away from him.

"Why? Upset that I ruined time with your new boyfriend?" He taunted her.

"First of all, the only reason I'm dating someone else is because _my_ Jace is never going to come back, and second of all, what do you mean?"

"Don't act all innocent Clary. We both know what happened."

"Okay, if you're all knowing, then what _really _happened?"

"You two had sex!" He yelled at her.

"Oh! My! God!" She yelled back, blushing as red as her hair, "First of all, we were at practice, so we took _separate_ showers because we were all sweaty, and second of all Ryder had given this to me a month ago!"

"Practice for what?" Jace hissed.

"Football and cheer leading! They just happen to run at the same time on Wednesdays." Clary huffed.

"Well either way, we have a very important place to get to, and we can't be a second later than we are."

"Why can't I stay here?"

"Because I want you by my side, that's why."

That was the last thing that was said before Jace dragged her through a different portal that a different warlock had procured.

_**A/N After that the battle of the Burren goes the same way it does in CoLS. That's where they're heading. Sorry for this really crappy writing, but I just randomly wrote this, so… Yeah. I just kinda felt like posting it. So… Sorry.**_

_**Song of the Day: American Idiot by Green Day**_


End file.
